6/11/2009 10:39:00 PM Letter: Problem with legislature is lack of leadership
Editor:
I watched Bob Burns and Kirk Adams on Horizon last night, hoping to hear some sensible answers to questions about the budget crisis.
How sad.
I didn't see and hear leaders. I saw and heard two tired and discouraged men who had worked for months to find solutions to the financial crisis while maintaining their narrow-minded positions of "too much government," "no tax increases," and pleasing land developers.
These positions were more important than the welfare of the state, and anyone in the legislature who had vision and insight was side-lined or squashed so they could not expose the foolishness of the "leadership."
Now, all Burns and Adams could do was blame others for their failures. Burns would not rule out making the governor look bad by holding the approved budget until the end of the month, and Adams could only blame Democrats for using the same deficit figures as Republicans and for thinking about raising taxes. How sad.
Most maddening is the dishonest and hypocritical claim not to raise taxes, when in fact budget cuts are forcing counties, cities, and school district to raise taxes to replace fund the legislature has taken away. My bank account still goes down, regardless of who receives the check. When is someone in "leadership" going to realize that taxes is the way citizens work together to do things we cannot do individually, and that taxes are not bad as long as they are fair and spent wisely?
Now we face the prospect of seeing some very dumb legislation passed at the end of the session because bills will be approved without adequate study or debate. The citizens of Arizona will suffer the consequences for years to come because of the failure of "leadership."
